


Tangled Wires

by jason_todds



Series: OOQ shorts/drabbles [3]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Flirting, General snarkiness, M/M, So the unrequited stuff is just Silva flirting with Q, Will I write more of this? Probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-09 16:07:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1989240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jason_todds/pseuds/jason_todds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Silva is creepy, Bond is very good at what he does (i.e blowing stuff up) and Q is so very, very tired of it all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was gonna be a serious bit of writing in which there was angst and sadness. It did not turn out that way.

“Afternoon, Quartermaster” a voice purred. Q didn't bother looking up.

“Busy” he said, eyes darting between his many screens.

“Now, now, Quartermaster. You wouldn't want to be rude, now would you” Q turned his head and looked at the man standing beside him, his shoulders tensed as a rush of intense dislike flooded over him.

“I’ll be as rude as I-“

“Is there a problem?”

Q felt his shoulders relax as 007 strode closer to where Q and other agent were standing. His icy eyes flickered between them. “No,” Q said. “Mr Silva here was just leaving.” he turned a hard stare on the smirking man who was standing uncomfortably close to him.

“I’ll see you soon, dearest Quartermaster” Silva said in a low voice, waggling his fingers at him. He walked towards the door and blew a kiss to Q before disappearing into the bowels of MI6. Bond watched the exchange with narrowed eyes and a sardonic eyebrow.

Q sighed and scrubbed his hands through his hair, “I _do not_ like him” he muttered before turning to face Bond. “Can I help you, 007?”

“My name is James, Q.”

Q rolled his eyes “I know. I hear it enough. What kind of secret agent uses his real name all the time? _The names Bond, James Bond_ ” he said, sarcastic inflection clear.

Bond just looked at him. “Silva really knows how to press your buttons, doesn't he?” he asked.

Q couldn't help but smile grimly, “If you had a psychotic double-oh agent hitting on you at every available opportunity…” he trailed off. “Well. You’d probably shoot them, actually”

Bond smiled slightly. “Probably.” He cleared his throat and pulled something out of his pocket. “Now Q, don’t overreact” he said as he placed what used to be a gun on the bench beside him.

Q stared at him. Then looked at the gun. Then stared some more. “Are you _incapable_ of bringing things back in one piece? One bit of equipment, James. Thats all I ask. _One. Bit_ ”

Bond smiled at him, a smug unfurling of lips. “Afternoon, Quartermaster” he unknowingly echoed Silva, but Q found he didn't mind the phrase half as much when Bond said it. He tossed a twisted bit of metal and wire on the bench. “I assumed you’d want the radio back, too”

He then strolled away, hands in the pockets of his impeccably tailored suit, whistling gleefully as Q spluttered inarticulately behind him.

“How did you even _do_ this?!” Q called after Bonds retreating back. “These things are designed to _withstand an explosion_!”

“I’m good at what I do, Q” Bond replied in a tone full of laughter.

“ _Fucking double-ohs_ ” he heard Q say. “ _Fucking James Bond_ ”

Now there, Bond thought, was an idea.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why am I doing this
> 
> It was a one shot 
> 
> Why

Bond slunk into Q-branch. As much as a man of his size and presence could slink.

“Bond? What the hell are you doing here?” came a sudden exclamation. He turned around and raised an eyebrow at Q, who was standing behind him with a cup of steaming tea in hand.

“I work here, Q” he replied. Q’s mouth twisted.

“Not _here_ you don’t” he said, gesturing to Q branch. “So 007, what are you doing here?”

Bond grinned at him then, and Q was momentarily startled by its brilliance, “Hiding from Medical”

Q looked at him for a moment before letting out a bright peal of laughter. “Why am I not surprised. Come on then, before they hunt you down” he took a sip of his tea and led Bond into his domain. “You’ll be needing to write up your mission report?” he asked as he walked towards his office. Bond sighed and nodded.

“Unfortunately”

Q’s mouth quirked up at that and he glanced at Bond. “I’ll find you something to write it up with”

Bond mock frowned at him “I thought you were going to hide me from medical”

Q smiled fully at him then. “I am”

——————

“Nice place you got here” said Bond, leaning back in an almost obscenely comfortable chair.

Q snorted, “Next thing you’ll be saying is ‘You come here often?” Bond grinned. 

"You come here often?”

“Yes 007, I do come here often. As this is my office”

“How many times is it, I wonder, that I’ve told you my name is James?”

Bond leant forward and rested his elbows on a desk covered in scraps of paper and empty tea mugs. He twirled a pen through his fingers and frowned down at his mission report, wondering what the best way to say ‘ _and then i blew up several cars because blowing things up is fun_ ’ was. He scribbled something down about distracting the people who had been trying to tail him and hoped that it would be deemed an acceptable reason, he really couldn't be bothered re-writing the whole report, and psych evals were a real pain in the arse.

“I know your name is James” Q said, absently tapping away at a laptop.

“So why not use it”

“Do I call any other agents by their first names?”

“Silva, sometimes. But only when you're yelling at him” Q looked over at him, his fingers still flying across the keyboard.

“In my honest opinion, Silva doesn't count as an agent”

Bond smirked. “What is he, then?”

“A pest” Q replied. Fingers stilling.

Bond snorted. “You’re not wrong” he tilted his head towards Q, “But really, my name is James”

Q met his gaze. “I know.” he said. His mouth curved upwards slightly, almost a smile. But not quite. “James” he added after a moment.

Bond smiled at him. The moment quietened and lengthened between them. Then Bond stood abruptly, chair skidding softly back on the carpet. “I’ve finished with this” he said, scooping up a few sheets of paper. He strode towards the door. “Best go face Medical” he murmured. His eyes far softer than usual as he looked at the quartermaster who was currently curled up on a small sofa shoved in the corner of his large, rather incredibly messy, office. Q smirked and shifted his fingers on the mug.

“You are a braver man than I, James”

Bond ducked his head and turned to leave, smile still playing on his lips.

Q watched him disappear and sighed. “Fucking James Bond” he muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel an urge to hit my head against the nearest wall


	3. Chapter 3

Q woke up. For a moment he lay in the semi darkness of his room, wondering why he was awake.

Q heard a soft noise coming from the direction of the living room. He sat up slowly and reached towards his bedside table, in which he kept a small pistol.

He padded out of his room and through the dark hallway as quietly as he could, knuckles white around the grip of his gun.

The sound of movement was faint, but it was definitely there.

_How the hell did anyone get past my security system?_ he thought. A sudden bolt of fear shot down his spine and curled in his stomach.

_Silva._

He took a deep breath and edged towards the doorway, he ignored the way the muzzle of the gun wavered slightly as he lifted it.

He could see a silhouette, slightly darker than the room around it moving around his living room. The height and build matched Silva, but the way of moving was all wrong.

Silva moved so smoothly you almost expected a trail of slime to be left behind him. His footsteps looked like they should be heavy, shaking the very ground he stepped on, but instead they made less sound than a mouse. Or a rat.

Q straightened up, his gun falling loosely to his side.

“What the bloody hell are you doing here, 007?” he demanded, flipping on the light switch.

Bond turned around, eyes zeroing in on the gun Q held immediately.

“Going to shoot me, Q? I’m afraid I’ll have to object, I’ve had rather enough of people trying to shoot me in the last few days”

Now that the light was on, Q could see that Bonds normally impeccable suit was looking rather worse for wear, it was torn in several places and Q could see a very suspicious stain.

“You’re bleeding” he said flatly. “Why are you bleeding in my flat”

Bond quirked a smile, but it looked rather strained. “Don’t have anyone else's flat to bleed in” he replied softly.

Q sighed and gestured sharply at him. “Sit down”

Bond sat.

Q disappeared for a moment, quickly retrieving his first aid kit from the bathroom. He re-entered the living room to find Bond shrugging off his jacket. His shirt was stained red.

“Goddamnit Bond, let me see that” Q sat down beside him and tugged at the shirt until he could see the wound. “You’re lucky” he murmured “It’s not too deep”

Bond was looking at him with an amused expression. Q pulled out disinfectant and promptly poured it over the wound. Bond didn't flinch, but his expression became noticeably strained. Q tried not to feel a sort of sadistic glee about that.

“I can do that” Bond said to him. Q looked at him sharply.

“You could also go to Medical, which is open 24/7, and get it properly looked after”

“Why would I do that _when I can do it_ ”

“Shut up and let me stitch you up”

Bond shut up. Q stitched him up.

————

“You can sleep here tonight” Q told him once he’d finished.

“Okay” Bond replied. “Thank you”

Q rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I’m going to kick you out, James”

“You’d be well within your rights too”

“It’s not like I’m going to kick you out” Q repeated. “Now, you can sleep in my bed. I’ll be fine on the couch”

“Q, I’m fine. Really. I’m not going to impose any further on you”

Q sighed. “It’s not imposing if I’m offering. Besides, you’re injured”

Bond looked at him, Q was staring at him with a defiant expression, his jaw set and his eyebrows low.

“Q, I’m not going to make you sleep on the couch”

Q hid a smile then. “Well then, if you insist on being difficult, we can share the bed. It’s quite big enough”  
If it not for Bond’s impressive poker face, Q rather thought he’d look quite surprised.

“You’re sure?” Bond asked in a endearingly tentative tone of voice.

“Quite” said Q decisively. “Come on then”

He stood and led the way to his bedroom, he didn't have to look behind him to know that Bond was following.

————

Q was warm. He was lying on something very comfortable and there were fingers shifting through his hair.

_Wait, what?_

He tried to sit up but something encircled his waist and pulled him back down. “It’s alright Q, go back to sleep. It’s early yet”

_Oh. It was just Bond._

He yawned and let himself collapse back into the warmth. “M’kay” he muttered, nuzzling into his very soft and comfortable pillow. He sighed with contentment as the fingers started pulling though his hair again.

Q drifted back to sleep, encircled in warmth. Later, when he woke up properly, he would be curled in the warm indent where another body had recently lain, and there would be a note of thanks and a steaming mug of tea on his bedside table. Along with his glasses, which he had no memory of taking off.

_Oh shit_

He groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. Then he sat up and pushed his glasses onto his nose. Picked up the mug with two hands and inhaled the scent of Earl Grey deeply. He took a sip and closed his eyes. It was the perfect balance of water, sugar and milk.

He had vague memories of lying sprawled across Bonds chest.

God, he was going to be insufferably smug.

But Q smiled into the rim of his mug and remembered how utterly safe he’d felt, for the first time in a long while.

He drank the last of his tea and glanced at the clock, he’d best start getting ready if he didn't want to be late.

Q slowly dragged himself into the shower and dressed, barely looking at what he was putting on.

He shuffled into Q-branch, yawning. He nodded greetings to his various minions before shutting himself in his office. Q found he couldn't concentrate at all. His thoughts kept meandering back to a certain double-oh agent.

Q groaned and let his head thump onto his desk.

_I have a crush on 007._

"Fuck"


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things happen and so does other stuff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, i want to apologise for this in advance... You're lucky though, i was very tempted to leave this on a cliffhanger. But i'm just not that cruel.

“Q”

Someone was saying his name. “A moment, please” he replied absently.

“ _Q_ ”

Q turned around and blanched “…Hello Eve”

“You stood me up” She said, arms crossed.

Q glanced at a clock and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry?”

“Come on, you’ve been down here for several hours too long.” She turned and walked out of the room, heels clicking menacingly against the floor. Q hesitated and and shot a longing glance at his laptop. “Q. _Now_ ”

“Alright, alright, I’m coming”

—————

Q and Eve sat opposite each other in a small coffee shop. “How’ve you been, Q?” Eve asked softly. “I haven’t seen you in weeks”

“I’ve been fine, theres been some problems with a few agents, but apart from that…”

Eve leant forward, “Which agents?” her eyes narrowed “Not Silva again?”

Q sighed and nodded “Silva again” he agreed.

Eve raised an eyebrow and tapped a perfectly painted nail against the table. “Thats not all though, is it?”

“No” Q sighed. “Thats not all”

“Q. Are you having boy troubles?” Eve asked with clear amusement. He flushed a little and shrugged a shoulder.

“Who is it?” she exclaimed, “Whose caught the eye of the infamously single Quartermaster?”

“You won’t like it” Q warned her. She frowned before comprehension dawned over her face.

“Oh Q, you don’t” he hunched down in his seat and refused to meet her eyes.

“Of all the people you could choose develop a crush on, you chose _James Bond_?” she sighed and shook her head, “Oh Q. This is all going to end in tears, you know that, don’t you?” Q perked up and grinned at her.

“Does that mean you'll help me?” he asked excitedly. Moneypenny shook her head in resignation.

“Yes Q. That means I’ll help you. What are friends for?”

Q settled his elbows on the table and smiled at her. “Thank you Moneypants”  
“Anything for my Quartermaster. Now. Tell me all what Silva’s been doing to you…”

————

Q headed back down to Q-branch, he had promised Moneypenny that he wouldn't do any more work, he was simply collecting a few of his personal items while she waited for him. She’d forced him into agreeing to a movie marathon. He smiled slightly, knowing Moneypenny it would consist of mostly disney movies. She had most of the songs memorised.

Q-branch was dark, there was no one there, which was unusual. Normally there was at least one or two people that stayed and worked into the early hours of the morning. Q walked quickly to his office, unnerved he glanced around, the room looked rather different when lit only by the glow of computer monitors.

He felt distinctly uneasy as he gathered up his belongings.

He felt even more so when the door to the hallway was closed, despite him having left it open. he shifted his stuff to one arm and typed in the door code.

It didn't open. Q typed in the override and the door still did not open. Someone spoke behind him, and he froze.

“I’m afraid thats no use, little Q” purred the person behind him. Q tired not to visibly shudder.

“Silva” he said, turning so his back was to the wall. He slipped his hand into his pocket and palmed his phone, tapping out a quick message to Eve.

“What are you doing” Q asked flatly. He had a fairly good idea of what Silva wanted.

Sliva flashed a mockery of a smile, it was all teeth. He closely resembled a shark in the dim light. His skin and hair was ghostly pale and his eyes were flat and dark.

“Oh my Q” Silva said softly, reaching to trail a fingers across Q’s cheek. “I think you know”

“Enlighten me” Q gritted out, ducking out from Silva’s hand and trying to put some distance between them. He glanced around the room for something he could defend himself with.

“Ah Q, don’t be like that” Silva purred, light bounced off the sharp edges of his teeth.

“ _What do you want_?” Q darted behind a desk, desperate to have something between Silva and him.

“You, dearest Q” he drawled. Q swallowed a hysterical giggle and sent Eve an increasingly urgent message.

“You can’t have me” Q growled, a surge of ridiculous anger curling in his chest. Silva’s smile grew, which was terrifying in and by itself.

“I think you’ll find” he chuckled “That I _can_ ”

Q backed away further. Silva smiled, and lunged.

—————

Eve’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She nodded and smiled at the blathering agent who had intercepted her. She zoned out as he gestured wildly. Her phone buzzed again after an indeterminate amount of time and this time she fished it out of her pocket and glanced at the screen. Her face went pale and she raced off into the bowels of MI6 without a word to the very confused agent.

Eve dodged around agents and any obstacles foolish enough to get in her way. She rounded a tight corner and crashed into something, she snarled something unintelligible and leapt to her feet. “Eve! Moneypenny! what the hell are you doing?”

It was Bond, who was looking at her with an extremely irritated and confused expression as he dusted off his suit. “ _Q_ ” she bit out, “ _Silva, Q-branch_ ”

His face paled and he took off without a backward glance, Eve dogging his footsteps.

They skidded to a halt in front of the entrance to Q branch. Bond’s fists clenched and unclenched as Eve attached the keypad in a veritable fury of hacking. The doors whirred and opened slightly, Bond pushed throughout them and let out an explosive snarl.

Eve pushed him out of the way and swore when she saw what was happening.

Q was crumpled on the ground, his clothes torn and bloodied. His mess of hair hid his face, but Eve could see his glasses lying on the ground a distance away, the glass was cracked.

Silva was crouched over him, grinning up at them. One of his hands fisted in Q’s hair.

“He’s such a pretty boy, isn't he?”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q let a low groan. He tried to open his eyes, but they felt so heavy…

He was lying on something soft, despite his comfortable resting place his body ached.

“Q?” someone asked softly, “Are you awake?”

He tried to force his eyelids open but he couldn't quite manage it. A hand slid over his and squeezed slightly. “It’s okay, go back to sleep. You're safe now”

Q sighed and obeyed, the darkness was so welcoming, he couldn't help but to slip back into unconsciousness.

————

_“Terrible thing”_

_“Yes, quite ghastly”_

_“Threat removed now-“_

_“Can’t believe it happened in the first place-“_

Q drifted in and out of consciousness, voices occasionally cutting through his daze. His dreams were vivid and strange, and each one seemed to contain a lurking threat. Something he couldn't quite see.

Finally, Q woke up properly. He blinked sleep out of his eyes and tried to sit up. A firm hand on his shoulder stopped him.  
“You’re hurt” said Bond. “You need to rest”

Q looked around him, taking in the room with wide eyes. Eve appeared to be asleep in a chair next to his bed, whilst Bond sat on his other side, half out of his chair.

“What happened? Why am I here?” he asked in confusion.

Bond frowned, and sat back. “You don’t remember?”

Q tried to resist the urge to roll his eyes like an annoyed teenager. “If I did, I doubt I would have asked”

Bond didn’t smile. “How do you feel?” he asked.

“Like I was hit by a truck. Now tell me what happened”

Bond hesitated, then rubbed a weary hand over his face. “You were getting some things from your office, and Silva cornered you. Moneypenny and I got there as soon as we could, but he’d already done quite a number on you” he explained quietly.

Q sat very still. His hands clenched in the sheets and he bowed his head, refusing to meet Bonds worried gaze.

“Why don’t I remember?” he asked.

“Because you hit your head, the doctor thinks you might be blocking it out, as well.”

“ _Will_ I remember it?”

Bond nodded, he tentatively reached for Q’s hand, and Q let him twine their fingers together.

“Yes” he answered softly. “Eventually”

Q let his head thump back into the pillow.

“Q, Silva is custody, he won’t be getting out for a long time. You're safe”

“I don’t feel safe” Q admitted. Bond’s fingers tightened around his. “I don’t… James, I don't want to be alone when I remember”

Bond sighed and brushed hair off of Q’s forehead. “You won’t be” he said.

“I promise”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you have any questions or just wanna talk then you can find me at amnesiacbucky.tumblr.com
> 
> Also 'moneypants' wasn't a typo, my head canon is that they are bestest friends and thats what Q calls her sometimes

**Author's Note:**

> So! Feedback! Kudos! Awesome things!


End file.
